Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Sheeple Watching - Modern Femininity

The first in a series of random observations and fleeting thoughts that flit through my mind lately whenever I walk about in public and observe the average, brainwashed, indoctrinated and oblivious American Sheeple.

Traditional Femininity Stands Out

The vast majority of females in the public sphere generally present themselves in two different categories: masculinized, empowered and uncaring of presenting an attractive image to males, or hyper-sexualized attention whores emulating sluts that advertise their wares for all to see.

The masculinized women I refer to is not necessarily lesbians or hardcore feminists...but rather women who eschew femininity. In this category, there are two subsets: Women in pants, pantsuits, slacks, or female "power suits" with shoulder pads to simulate masculine shoulders. These women are dressed to be "empowered" and ready to compete with men in the world of white collar business. The ironic thing about this fashion trend is that it was mostly inspired by the feminist doctrine that women should dress like men in order for men to "take them seriously" in the world of business. The contention that women must dress like men to be taken seriously by men is indeed the perfect indication that feminists that pushed this idea do not understand what it is about women that men "take seriously."

The other kind of masculinized fashion sense is the jeans, sweatshirts, sweat pants and T-shirt types with tennis shoes or flip flops on their feet. They deliberately dress to downplay their feminine appearance. This one, I think, appears to be much more prevalent amongst the majority of the female herd members of 21st Century American Sheeple. I find this current cultural zeitgeist to be particularly demoralizing. It's the deliberate social engineering to make the world a much less visually appealing place. Some feminists would gleefully declare that last pronouncement as a blow to Patriarchy.

For once, they would be correct.

Now this thought occurred to me, when I was walking around downtown Honolulu this morning and observed the vast majority of females dressed as one or the other specimens I previously detailed. About 100 yards away, across the street, I observed a women wearing a dress. A regular, non-slutty dress that was tasteful and extremely visually appealing because it projected femininity in a non-promiscuous manner on a purely aesthetic level.

As we walked towards each other, I quickly realized that within 20 yards, it became apparent that she was actually quite unattractive when it came to her facial features...but her feminine appearance definitely went a long way towards softening up her asymmetrical face, acne scarring and crooked nose.

In Hawaii, we guys have a saying for this...it's called "Good from far...but far from good!' Nevertheless, this perception I had of her really drove the point home in my mind - the loss of the conventional standards of femininity in dress has made the world a much less beautiful place to behold. Even ugly women can avoid visual offense to male sensibilities if they project femininity in their dress and mannerisms! Of course there are plenty of women who just plain don't care about appealing to men's visual sense. I consider this a society-wide tragedy of epic proportions.

The flip side of that coin, of course, is the women who play up their sexual assets to inspire and over-excite their appeal to male visual stimuli response. This, of course, is much more common on the night time scene. In fact, many of the women who dress either as the masculinized, androgynous womanoids in either jeans t-shirts and tennis shoes in the daytime, or the "empowered" business attire during the day, will than go home, and get dressed up as exhibitionists for their night time recreation. As a normal male that certainly enjoys female visual stimuli, I still find such revealing attire a sad state of affairs. Women who dress like in this picture do project an aura of promiscuity - that they are open to propositions for casual sex with strangers. Even women who do not intend to do so, and are in fact interested in meeting a man with whom they want to pursue a serious committed relationship, still present themselves as promiscuous sluts when they are out and about for the evening, simply because that appears to be the norm of female attire in this day and age.

But the woman who truly stand out amongst the crowd, are those that defy the modern conventions, embrace tasteful femininity, and resemble a metaphorical flower amongst the weeds. Even here in Hawaii, where we have a somewhat specialized fashion sense influenced by our unique cultural conditions, it's apparent that the vast majority of women generally follow the typical models I previously detailed. The traditional feminine clothing specific to Hawaii is the mu'umu'u (it's NOT pronoucned "moo moo," it's pronounced moo-ooh moo-ooh), and most women in Hawaii (who were born and or raised here) have at least one mu'umu'u hanging in her closet.

But where it was once daily wear, it is now usually reserved for only church wear or family type events. Yet it was only a generation ago...hell, in my lifetime, that I recall most females, young and old, here in Hawaii, who wore mu'umu'u on an almost daily basis. I still remember my 3rd grade class when most of the girls wore dresses and mu'umu'u...but by the time we were in high school, the cultural inculcation of androgyny or hyper-sexualization had taken hold and rendered traditional feminine wear nearly obsolete.

I can't tell you how many times I've experienced an almost breath-taking shock when I've been around women I've known and socialized with for a long time...who all adhere to some various sense of masculine dress for the majority of their lives...who on some rare occasion, put on a feminine, non-promiscuous dress and shoes. It's a dramatic transformation...but it's only so shocking because indeed, as of nowadays, it's so uncommon.

It seems as if women en masse in our 21st century BraveNewWorldOrder have all been inculcated to embrace either androdgyny or exhibitionism in their clothing and fashion choices. Both extremes are meant to either nullify or over-excite the human males hard-wired biological response to visual stimuli. In either case, it seems to me that the social engineers who have mutated cultural norms of traditional femininity into either extremes, have deliberately done so to foment the modern gender war we all currently endure.

33 comments:

KG- I am looking forward to reading your view on the Illuminati over at The Spearhead.

I wholeheartedly agree with this post. Even as a woman, I appreciate seeing other women who have enough self-respect and care to take pride in their appearance and do better than the icky casual or menswear that is so prevalent today. Sweats might be okay while checking into the ER but at the grocery store?? Have times really changed that much?

Having been raised Baptist, I didn't wear pants too often and hardly wear them even now, except for a few choice occasions, such as hiking or a playground trip on a very windy day. Pants are not as flattering and pretty as a tasteful dress/skirt nor does my husband find them as attractive. Dressing nicely and taking care of your appearance takes such a small amount of effort but can have a large impact. Just wear a dress and a touch of lipstick to a social function and watch the compliments come. Sadly comical and a sign of the times.

moomoo = tent like garment worn by those too fat to fit into anything else.

I agree with the post. Its nice to look upon these hypersexual girls but due to it being commonplace it doesn't really excite nor is it terribly attractive, despite guys looking. Also, it really shows the truth behind women's claims to want to be taken for who they are when they dress that way. Its like they are somehow acknowledging that their feminist rhetoric is just that, and that their value lies more in their looks and fecundity.

What exactly is the point of these things? All shoulder pads on a woman do is just make the rest of her body look off.Emergency cleavage enhancers! If a woman didn't have time to go home between work and the nightly sleaze fest, she cold take off her shirt underneath, slice out the shoulder pads and stuff them into her bra for insta-lift. I'm only half-kidding as they actually. Cosmo has probably ran a similiar tip before. ;o)

On a serious note, there is a lighter, smaller version of shoulder pads that are available at sewing stores, in the notions area, that are used to provide stabilization to certain sorts of fabrics and womens dress patterns. Usually a product called interfacing is used, but sometimes this will not work in awkward areas, light fabrics, or tricky patterns, so a shoulder pad is used instead. This will often be seen on sundresses that have a sheer fabric on top with a light lining underneath, dressy jackets/toppers, and decorative sleeves of several types.

Certain body types can also benefit from a bit of a shoulder pad. A woman wishing to conceal an ample bust might benefit from a shoulder pad, as would an elderly lady who is hoping to conceal some of the effects of older age. These are usually much thinner than their masculine womens suit jacket counterpart, though.

I commute by train into Manhattan and therefore see ample numbers of women going to business and professional jobs. Not to mention that I work with many, albeit in a "business casual" environment. The shoulder-padded masculinized power suit look is not common, not by any means. In fact I'd say it's quite rare.

I went to safeway last night at around 11:30pm. On a tuesday. I'm dressed the part, shorts/slippers/t-shirt. Just about finished getting what I need to get, and in come a group of people, 2 guys and 3 girls.

Two girls had their boobs falling out of their tops, one in tight jeans one in a mini skirt. The other was wearing heels so high that she had trouble walking (she looked like she was limping).

One of the guys dressed like Kanye west. Much like here: http://tinyurl.com/ykyarho (except he had a scarf on). The other guy I didn't get a good look at.

I have added this article to my links. Please tell me where I can get more photos like that of the women in the long dresses!! I have one post called "Hawaiian Dresses" on my blog that links to dresses you can buy, produced in Hawaii, and they are beautiful.

Great article! I care a lot about dressing fashionably and femmily, and sometimes it takes so much work to find good clothes. (Shopping is not an easy task as many guys think lol).

I realized a few weeks ago that I like, never open a door for myself except when alone. I rarely lift my luggage into the overhead on the airplane. I don't think chivalry is dead... and I'm talking about this stuff happening in NYC, DC, Boston... Maybe I am a walking frame of femininity, and the fact I really try to dress up and dressy femmy (I love pink and frills and sparkles!) has something to do with it.

About work clothes, it's been my work lifelong struggle to find fitted, young, and cute suits. Dresses are a little easier. A lot of girls manage to dress well for work, especially the younger ones (like me)... The flip side is you look to pretty or young to be taken seriously... I'm still struggling with how to do all this. "Look professional and old at work, young and sweet in private..."

I could go on and on... but I think sweats or very comfortable casual clothes can look femmy too. A nicely fitted pair of jeans with a ruffly top, or a tee shirt with a big bow on it in a pretty color, some dangly earrings and bracelets and pretty hair, and nice shoes can still look femmy. Juicy Couture and some other brands have sweats in pink and other girly colors, and with flowery patterns etc. It all helps.

"I've experienced an almost breath-taking shock when I've been around women I've known and socialized with for a long time...who all adhere to some various sense of masculine dress for the majority of their lives...who on some rare occasion, put on a feminine, non-promiscuous dress and shoes. It's a dramatic transformation..."

Sooo true. For a while I've debated dressing "down" or less femmy on purpose so that when I do dress up, the impact can be more! Now I barely have time to plan so I just go with the flow.

OK I feel inspired to write a post about this stuff... I think about all this wayyy to much for my own good. Nice to see a man who notices these things though :-) (Guys shouldn't complain when girls seem obsessed with fashion and clothes... it makes a difference, no?)

Oh and about the girls who dress promiscuously... I've always noticed that when I dress well in something fitted that also covers, I get more respectful attention (almost like worship) than if I wear something very daring. I always feel so embarassed and even cheap when I've tried to dress more showy....

In hook-up environments, yes the girls who dress and act the most sl*tty get the most attention. But turning that type of attention into love (towards commitment) is extremely hard to do, if not impossible.

The hint of sexiness is more enticing than when it's in your face... where's the touch of fantasy to reality? :-)

Interesting post. I appreciated hearing a male perspective, as I am in the process of reworking my wardrobe...leaving behind the jeans/sweats/tennis shoes look for something more feminine. Keep up the good writing.

I hope you can find a Hawaiian dress photo to replace the one that was removed from this post. The picture made such a good statement by itself. Since I still have a link to this post from my modest dress section on my blog, I hope you can find another photo.

This is really nice! Thinking Housewife has linked to this article in one of her recent ones on "prettiness", I think, so I am glad you replaced the photograph. There is nothing like the Hawaiian dress--it is the ideal garment.

In her 1985 book Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility, Germaine Greer pointed out that traditional feminine clothing (which is more forgiving of the fuller and/or pregnant figure than tight modern clothing) is a celebration of motherhood.

"Women who wear cortes or huipiles or saris or jellabas or salwar kameez or any other ample garments can swell and diminish inside them without embarrassment or discomfort. Women with shawls and veils can breastfeed anywhere without calling attention to themselves, while baby is protected from dust and flies. In most non-Western societies, the dress and ornaments of women celebrate the mothering function. Ours deny it."

Would I be a conspiracy theorist if I speculated that their could be connection between the fact that androgynous-ideal feminism kicked into high gear around about 1970, and the fact that Malthusian ideology was being re-popularized around that time with books such as Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb.

I went to safeway last night at around 11:30pm. On a tuesday. I'm dressed the part, shorts/slippers/t-shirt. Just about finished getting what I need to get, and in come a group of people, 2 guys and 3 girls.

Two girls had their boobs falling out of their tops, one in tight jeans one in a mini skirt. The other was wearing heels so high that she had trouble walking (she looked like she was limping).

One of the guys dressed like Kanye west. Much like here: http://tinyurl.com/ykyarho (except he had a scarf on). The other guy I didn't get a good look at.